STOP THE FAT SHAMING

A subject that I have touched on in a few blog posts is obesity. I think we all know that this is a massive problem today.
However, what I do see in the Health & (especially)Fitness industry is fat shaming. Right, some people actually needs to hear a few(a lot?) though words to actually get their ass into gear and do something about their body weight(if you chose to eat whatever you like and not caring for your body – its your fault). BUT, there is a lot of people who is overweight or obese due to biological factors. And it’s not really all about willpower anymore.

As said before – everyone is different. We are all made up with different sets of genes. We all have different levels of hormones, enzymes etc. And some people have unfortunately been born with dysfunctional hormones and biological pathways. This is so important for us to keep a healthy body weight. If some of our hormones are not working quite right, we will see the misfortune of that. In an earlier blog post I talked about Leptin. Some people have leptin resistance which is a major obesity problem and if the brain can’t track that signal – it will think it is starving and you will continue eating although your body have been fed the amount it needed.

If you are depressed you can easily turn to food. If you are going through a rough time you can turn to food, and sometimes you simply forget to go back to “normal”.

Overweight and obese people needs help. And not to be told off that it is their fault that they are what they are today. This is not helping, this is making the problem worse.

I think most people out there actually don´t know how to take care of their health or know what food is “healthy” or “unhealthy” for them. Years before I got a serious interest in Nutrition and diets I was considering myself eating “healthy”, looking back half of what I eat I wouldn’t eat on a daily basis today!

You eat Granola for breakfast, and consider this as a nutritious meal option, but you didn’t know the amount of carbs and sugar is quite high in Granola and breakfast cereals. A high protein breakfast with bacon and eggs would actually be a better option as a high protein breakfast gives more fat oxidation(speeds up the metabolism – fat burner) than a high carb breakfast(see this study), but then you always thought bacon and eggs as an unhealthy meal as the media has told you how bad all the saturated fat was and what was making you fat in the first place? So you stayed away from high fat products but you are still overweight? Do you see where I’m getting here?

Trust me on one thing, don’t listen to the media when it comes to diets, nutrition etc. Even if something worked for James in Australia doesn’t mean its going to work on Julie in Liverpool. We are all different!

So I would just like to ask all of my readers to have a deep think about this, as it is important. Don´t ever look down at an overweight person again – as it might be a very big struggle for them. I used to be a fat shamer, I used to think that people where overweight because they simply just didnt care of what they put into their bodies, they made excuses of not going to they gym(note you do not have to go to the gym to lose weight!) and it was their own fault. After learning that it can come down to medical conditions and it’s not always their fault, I’ve changed that mindset. Myself have also been overweight growing up, but I didn’t really care of what I was eating. Although I have to go to the gym and stay on track with my diet to have a healthy body weight – You can actually “train” your body to make a better metabolism.

But, if you are an overweight person and reads this, dont automatically assume you have dysfunctional biological pathway. Look at your diet, look at your lifestyle. Is it a opitmal one for you health? Have you tried changing it? What happened? Ask yourself questions and take action. If you find yourself failing time after time, get some medical advice. Help is there if you need it, you just have to go and ask.